Harney and Sons, what a fancy, hoity toity sounding name. They must make good tea, even if the price seems too good to be true. Well, bleehhh. The first infusion of this sencha was in the ballpark, albeit way up in the nosebleed section with an obstructed view. I followed the directions except I used almost three full wooden scoops because yesterday's experiment with less tea at a lower temperature resulted in a tepid liquid that sent me to the pu-erh shelf. ]
I lived in Japan for a long time and have had some great tea, but sadly never delved into what I was actually drinking. Despite speaking quite a bit of Japanese, I never learned words such as gyokuro, asamushi, etc. When buying tea, I just chose by price. If there were offerings of 1,000, 2,000, and 3,000 yen I'd usually take the middle one and not even know anything more about the tea. Anyway, back to now. The first infusion was OK, especially for someone who is sencha starved. The bitterness was on the verge of being too much but I was able to savor it. I probably used too much tea. But this second infusion, which I did at the same temp, 80C, and same length, three minutes, just ain't good. I'm making faces. I'm sticking my tongue out, hoping the air will take away the taste.
Well, it was worth a try. Living in Thailand, Iherb's cheap, cheap shipping is always attractive. Is Rishi any better?

Puerlife wrote:Harney and Sons, what a fancy, hoity toity sounding name. They must make good tea, even if the price seems too good to be true. Well, bleehhh. The first infusion of this sencha was in the ballpark, albeit way up in the nosebleed section with an obstructed view. I followed the directions except I used almost three full wooden scoops because yesterday's experiment with less tea at a lower temperature resulted in a tepid liquid that sent me to the pu-erh shelf. ]
I lived in Japan for a long time and have had some great tea, but sadly never delved into what I was actually drinking. Despite speaking quite a bit of Japanese, I never learned words such as gyokuro, asamushi, etc. When buying tea, I just chose by price. If there were offerings of 1,000, 2,000, and 3,000 yen I'd usually take the middle one and not even know anything more about the tea. Anyway, back to now. The first infusion was OK, especially for someone who is sencha starved. The bitterness was on the verge of being too much but I was able to savor it. I probably used too much tea. But this second infusion, which I did at the same temp, 80C, and same length, three minutes, just ain't good. I'm making faces. I'm sticking my tongue out, hoping the air will take away the taste.
Well, it was worth a try. Living in Thailand, Iherb's cheap, cheap shipping is always attractive. Is Rishi any better?

Now you've said it.

I have purchased Harney's sencha in the year 2004. I remember it clear cos that was the first sencha which soup turned out to be opaque/unclear. At that time I wasn't into Japanese tea that drove me to think it was normal phenomenon for sencha...but nah.

Their pyramid tea bags were quite ok and black teas they have names for that...so I'd skip..

Are links allowed? It's the only sencha offered by Harney and Sons on the iherb dot com site. The first time I brewed it I did 60C for I forget how long, maybe three minutes, but it was pretty bad, way too weak. That's why I followed their directions the next time. Four ounces for $11.48 - is that price too low to expect anything good?

Puerlife wrote:Are links allowed? It's the only sencha offered by Harney and Sons on the iherb dot com site. The first time I brewed it I did 60C for I forget how long, maybe three minutes, but it was pretty bad, way too weak. That's why I followed their directions the next time. Four ounces for $11.48 - is that price too low to expect anything good?

Yes, members in good standing are always permitted to link to products, etc.

The Iherb brewing instructions are identical to what's on the tin, as follows:

The correct way to brew green tea

Heat pot with boiling water until warm to touch
Discard that water and put a teaspoon of tea for each cup of tea desired.
Pour 180ºF water over tea & steep 3 minutes.
Pour through strainer.

Sounds kind of boiler plate. That's why I didn't brew it that way the first time. I'll try 160* for 1-2 minutes next time but it's strange that they say one thing on their website and another on the tin. Where did you find those instructions? I looked here but there's no product description: https://www.harney.com/japanese-sencha- ... z-tin.html
EDIT: I just found those instructions.